Abstract
Introduction
With an aging population also come disabling chronic diseases, the diabetes mellitus (DM) is among them. The aim was to evaluate the prevalence of DM in the elderly of the Family Health Program in Porto Alegre, according to the sociodemographic and health variables, and describe the treatment used and medication adherence.
Methods
Cross-sectional study conducted in individuals above 60 years old. Data were collected by a questionnaire (sociodemographic, health status, lifestyle and drug information). Morisky scale was assessed for the medication adherence.
Results
We analyzed 763 older adults with a mean age of 69.1 ± 7.5 years, 63.7% were female. The prevalence of DM was 23.5% and was higher in women (27.2%), in people aged 60-79 years (24.6%), in the widowed (28.4%) and those who reported having caregiver (27.6%). On the health variables, elderly with higher BMI and those reporting heart disease presented a higher prevalence of DM. Metformin was the mostly used hypoglycemic drug (76.5%).
Conclusion
The elderly care has increased in ESF diabetic patients’ and this study will help in developing strategies to better care for this population.
Keywords:
diabetes mellitus; medication adherence; aged